Let’s get this party started

September 22, 2011

Easy. Tasty. Impressive. Can't beat it.

If you’re gonna throw a brunch, one of the standbys is quiche.

If you really want to make it look cool and serve nicely, it’s individual quiches.

If you really want to make it look cool and serve nicely and you have a gluten-intolerant child who is the mother of the guest of honor, and who loves her some quiche, you can’t use pastry crusts, either the kind you make yourself or the frozen stack of ’em in the little foil pans.

So you use corn tortillas.

Here’s how:

Take your tortillas about three at a time and cut four slits in them, at the compass points, cutting to within about an inch of the center.

Pay no mind to the weird-looking hand that needs a manicure.

Lap the cut sides over each other, forming a cup shape. I generally do about two “wings, then set it down in the muffin tin, and finish lapping them, letting the tin help hold the cup shape. Then gently push them down into the tins. The 6-inch tortillas will extend just a bit above the sides of a regular muffin tin.

Like that.

Be sure you spray those tins thoroughly with non-stick spray. More about that in a minute.

I used white corn tortillas for one pan, yellow for the other, because Child B had both kinds. The yellow ones seemed to be more flexible and handle better.

Ham and broccoli. Cheese still to come.

Fill those babies. Put whatever “solid” filling you want in the bottom of the tortilla cups. I used browned chorizo and grated cheese and black olives in one pan, and diced ham, grated cheese and broccoli in the other. Your mileage may vary.

Beat together eggs and heavy cream. For two dozen of these babies, I needed about 18 eggs and about 3 cups of cream. I actually was three eggs short of that, because I’d used them in the lime tarts, so I had to skimp a bit. You can also use half-and-half, if you’re inclined; if I’m making quiche, I’m channeling Julia Child and I am using honest-to-God CREAM, thankyouverymuch. I didn’t use any other seasoning, because I’d tasted the chorizo and it was pretty spicy, and there was plenty of salt in the ham and the cheese in the other one. Again, your mileage may vary.

Using a measuring cup for a scoop, portion out the egg and cream mixture into the cups, filling to within about a half-inch of the rim of the muffin tin, which is about 3/4 of an inch below the rim of the tortilla cup.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until nicely puffed up and golden on top. Some of the cheese migrates to the top and makes a nice brownable crust. You could top the uncooked ones with additional cheese (I did) and even bread crumbs, were you so inclined. Take out of the oven and cool on racks.

Now. Here is where you do NOT need to do what I did, which is let those babies cool way too long in the pans, because? They will STICK, boys and girls. They will stick like a combination of concrete and super glue, and even with a knife around the sides, you will NOT be able to cleanly get them out. Because those little cups are not leakproof, and a bit of the egg will escape into the muffin tin. If you only cool them about 5 minutes, and THEN run a knife around the sides and gently lift them out, they SHOULD come out just fine.

I think.

Or you could play it safe and use little cupcake paper cups.

Anyway, these are kinda fun, and they look cool, and the crusts are easy and cheap and any gluten-intolerant guests will love you long time. You can play with the ingredients and add whatever combo of stuff suits your fancy. And they keep, and warm up nicely.

You and y’mama ‘n ’em try these the next time you have a whole slew of people to feed breakfast/brunch. Guaranteed to impress.

Gorgeous, I'm tellin' ya. Just plain gorgeous.

Oh, and THIS is the reason we had this soiree. And she is the most adorable child in the world, she is.